It is occasionally necessary or desirable for owners or operators of commercial, business or residential buildings or structures, including multi-unit apartment/condominium buildings, to control, limit or shut off the pressurized water supply. Such circumstances can arise for instance in the event of a water leak (downstream of the proposed automatic shut off valve), during the repair of an appliance or plumbing fixture or where the building or dwelling may be unoccupied for an extended period of time. It can further be desirable for owners to limit or control water usage to manage expenses and to conserve resources for environmental purposes.
In light of such conditions and interests, it is generally known that a valve can be connected to a building's water supply line in order to shut off the water when needed. Such known valves, however, have certain limitations. For example, many known valves are manually operable and/or cannot be actuated from a remote location. In addition, such known valves cannot detect the real-time flow conditions within the water supply line and communicate those conditions to the owner/operator. Thus, in certain instances, there is no way to actually shut off the water or confirm that the water has in fact been shut off without being physically present at the building.
Thus, there is a need for an automatic shut-off valve that can be remotely actuated without in-person manual operation. For purposes of increased reliability, it would additionally be desirable for such a device to feature auxiliary control elements should the primary element malfunction or fail. In addition, there is a further need for an automatic shut-off valve that can detect the status of fluid flow within the pipe or supply line and transmit such information to a displaced device or location over a communication network via a wired or wireless connection.
It would further be beneficial if such device could operate off its own local rechargeable power supply if external power is not available or disrupted. Moreover, it would additionally be beneficial for such device to be able to operate self-sufficiently by being able to recharge the power supply if need be.